Eighteen generations ago, special ancient samurai warriors called the Shinkenger were authorized by the Japanese Emperor to defend their country against the Gedoushuu monsters from the mythical Sanzu River. The Shinkenger succeeded, and the Gedoushuu were defeated. Hundreds of years later in 2009, the Gedoushuu have slowly rebuilt themselves and they are slipping through all dark crevasses once more to collect human screams to flood the Sanzu River into the world for their return. Takeru Shiba, the current samurai lord of the Shiba Clan, now summons four vassal samurai from different clans, and arms them with the magical scripture power known as mojikara to become the new Samurai Sentai Shinkenger!

In Act 10: “DaiTenkuu Gattai”, the four vassal Shinkenger learn that the Kabuto, Kajiki, and Tora Origami can combine together into a legendary animal called DaiTenkuu (“Great-Sky”). Takeru selects himself to command the Tora Origami, and Ryuunosuke continues with the Kajiki Origami since he originally captured it. However, Chiaki (Shinken Green) is quietly frustrated when he is passed over for the Kabuto Origami in favor of Mako (Shinken Pink). During a battle with an umbrella-shaped Gedoushuu Ayakashi monster, Shinken Pink loses the Kabuto Disc, and Shinken Green recovers it. Rather than return it when ordered to, however, he selfishly tries to harness it, but still does not have strong enough mojikara to use it properly, and the Ayakashi retreats into the air. Despite secretly training on his own, it takes a private meeting with the Shinkenger’s mentor and manager of the Shiba household, Hikoma Kusakabe, to make Chiaki realize that mojikara goes beyond simply writing characters in the air. As Shinkenger of the forest, he must find his own way of making mojikara work, and then he will be able to expand his horizons at last. It finally clicks for Chiaki, and he finds encouragement as a Shinkenger, taking on the airborne Ayakashi solo until it is destroyed. As the battle scales up, the Ayakashi again takes to the skies to avoid damage, and Shinken Pink gives the Kabuto Disc to Shinken Green, telling him that he would be a better pilot for it. With the pilots finally selected, the three Origami are summoned, and the Samurai Gattai DaiTenkuu is assembled.

The DaiTenkuu is agile in the air through the use of barrel rolls and back-flips, and has both razor-sharp feathers on the end of each wing, an energy beam from its crown, and the stun-and-rush DaiTenkuu Daigekitotsu finisher.

The DaiTenkuu can roll freely on nine wheels, but there is no poseable mouth as seen in the series.

Aside from combining with the three accessory Origami, the DaiTenkuu utilizes the multiple connection joints on the Tora Origami not only to spin its four legs, but to turn all of the Secret Discs and head/nose on the other two Origami at the same time! (Make sure that the catch levers on the two outer Origami are released, or else gears will grind!)

In Act 12: “First in History: Chou Samurai Gattai”, after much soul searching for most of the episode, Takeru is reminded why he is head of the Shiba Clan and why he cannot exclude his vassal samurai anymore; to be mutually supportive of each other despite personal burdens. As the team grows closer in order to defeat the Gedoushuu, Ryuunosuke makes the realization that depending on past tactics may not work anymore despite their effectiveness. As an Ayakashi summons flying Onarashii Renjuu grunts for the first time, Shinken Blue makes his proposal to the others: combine the DaiTenkuu with the Shinken-Oh into ‘Ryuunosuke’s Super Samurai Gattai’. With the flight capabilities of the DaiTenkuu, the Tenkuu Shinken-Oh is easily able to defeat the Onarashii Renjuu with just the DaiShinken, and then finish off the Ayakashi monster with the aerial Tenkuu Karadake Waki (“Heavenly Bamboo Splitting”).

The Tenkuu Shinken-Oh has no special feature unto itself. The Tenkuu Karadake Waki is just a variation of the DaiTenkuu Daigekitotsu, so appropriately the three Secret Discs, Kabuto head, Kajiki nose, and two of the Tora’s legs still spin when the lever on the back is turned. (The two legs attached to the chest are not connected to the geared gimmick, but can still spin independently.)

So, the parts-former gestalt reveals itself early in the series as a second samurai gattai... and it’s a fat bird with two heads on its wings. Using only accessory mecha for a combo has been seen just one other time before, with the Gougou Gattai DaiTanken from “Gougou Sentai Boukenger” (2006), but that was a five-part combo that formed another humanoid robo, and was served to us as a movie-exclusive combo. That distinction aside, I’m not really feeling a bird here, but rather a wide tank with a tail. Though a lot was sacrificed to the individual accessory Origami and their separate combos with Shinken-Oh, I must give props to PLEX for somehow pulling a three-way gear gimmick out of their hat, which has never been done before with a non-final combo. Not only do all three Secret Discs spin, but the Tora’s legs, Kabuto’s head, and Kajiki’s nose all move with them. Unfortunately, because the movement on the Kajiki is so minor, it makes the movement overall very lopsided. Again, it’s not truly origami (“folding paper”) or Origami (“folding-god”) because the entire design is dependent on swapping parts. I kind of like how they tried to transform the head, but I don’t think it was executed very smoothly since it’s so disproportionate to everything else; a very tiny head and neck for this bird. And, like, what is up with the Tora’s head just getting plunked down under the tail so awkwardly? Why not integrate it into the neck somehow? I already have ranted on three previous reviews about the individual Origami, and the DaiTenkuu takes all those problems and meshes them together to try and give us an excuse for their existence. Combos are supposed to be cool, and this one is not.

A minor step is taken from "ugly bird" to "ugly bird-as-a-backpack". Have we reached the Cluster-f*ck Megazord stage not three months into “Samurai Sentai Shinkenger”? Ehh… I’m inclined to hold on that label for a little more and say no. In my opinion, the Bakuryuu Chou Gattai MaxRyuuOh from “Bakuryuu Sentai AbaRanger” (2003) is of a similar vein and was the first of the limb-swap era to do so, but was only composed of five mecha (well, eight if you want to get technical). The key factor in my saying it’s not is that it just hangs off the back- there’s no real transition other than simply slapping a previous combo onto the back of the Shinken-Oh, minor parts-forming notwithstanding. On the other hand, any form of stylized ancient Japanese warrior-esque design (which any combo with the Shinken-Oh and one accessory mecha somehow managed to maintain) gets thrown out the window here despite the gold ringed crown splitting apart to resemble a horned helmet (FAIL, because it’s too similar to the Tora Shinken-Oh’s to be ignored as such). One big issue really drags the combo down, and I’m not certain if it’s a common issue, or a unique problem that slipped past Q.A.- the three connection points between the Tora and Shinken-Oh are not that great, and the heavy backpack almost-regularly falls off when picked up by the front-half, so I end up holding the whole thing with both hands rather than flying it around with just one hand. I’m willing to forgive that it could be unique to mine, but if it’s common… then how in the hell did that slip past the designers before production even started!?

Considering the ¥6930 ($79.06 approx.) plus shipping-&-handling I had to spend to get these two combos made, I don’t think I got my money’s worth. The Kabuto Origami and Kajiki Origami really tie your hands and don’t stand alone well without painfully reminding you they are part of a combo with those giant immovable half-wings, and all three accessory mecha put together is difficult to look at. Perhaps only in shelf presence do the DaiTenkuu and Tenkuu Shinken-Oh have any real power. But I think all the tabs and joints and parts have been used up at last, so I don’t think it will be required of any future combo… although I’ve been known to be wrong before.

Pretty bad accessory combo. I knew there was a reason I never got anything past the original 5 Origami and Ebi

Anyway, If you do ever get them I think Ebi Origami is pretty decent. While Ika is just as lame as these guys. fortunately Ebi doesn't need anybody else to be cool. Daikai-Oh Is quite a nice robot with a fairly cute gimmick. Ohh and he has one of the better combinations I've seen in a while with a base Mecha. True Samurai Gattai Daikai Shinken-Oh looks nicely powered up.

While the final combo Samuraihaoh is akin to what Engine Oh's G12 combo was, Just a mess of mecha slapped together. I'll avoid cursing though.

I have all the Shinkenger mechs except for Daigoyou and Kyoryu Origami (which is basically a repaint of the Shinkenmaru). The yellow tabs that come with Kabuto, Kaijiki, and Tora are never needed, though Ika Origami comes with one as well. All eleven Shinkenger mechs as Samurai Ha Oh are a cluster, but a sight to behold nonetheless.

Oh, I'm sure the Samurai Ha-Oh is quite the spectacle, but not one I'm willing to spend another +$120 on!

I figured the yellow clip-ons were to keep the Shinken-Oh's torso upright in the Samurai Busou forms, but that was when it was back-heavy from the Kabuto and Tora. But if the Ika hangs out in front, what then are the clips for???
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CollectionDX Staff

Well to me, I have ALL the Shinkenger mecha pieces even DaiGouYou and Kyoryu. The 12-piece thingy called Kyoryu Samurai Ha-Oh is awesome but the Kyoryu can't really hold itself nicely on HaOh. However, it is achieveable nonetheless.

Let me answer EVA's question on the yellow peg. The yellow pegs were released to cure an error Bandai Japan had made when producing Shinken-Oh, a very weak backbone joint. So, each of the Gattai Series pieces aside from Kajiki (YES! even Kyoryu has one) include this one little peg. The yellow peg serves 2 purposes:

1) Enforces the back so that it won't break whenever you do a Busou or Chou Samurai Gattai thing. (Kajiki is not applicable because the body of the Kajiki is enforced at the backbone, covering it and enforcing it)

2) It removes the oddity that the back of the body is empty when you do a Busou. So, that explains why even Kyoryu and Ika has them.

I would say Ha-Oh is awesome. I never really tried the mechanical feature in HaOh mode but in MogyuDaiOh and Ushi mode, I did. DaiGouYou is one piece I'd say that stands out of place. Nothing of him is applicable to the HaOh formation, unlike Kyoryu. And unlike Go-Roader from his pre-decessor, DaiGouYou is in no way performing attacks with HaOh. In the show, he normally stays in the cockpit with Genta. However, DaiGouYou has a very interesting gimmick, it speaks random phrases when you push the Disk launching button at the back and remove the Disk from the hatch. That's what I like which is being more gimmicky than GoRoader.

I briefly considered getting DaiGoyou because it was compatible with the Shinken-Oh, but mostly the lantern mode killed it for me... AND it's a parts-former, which I've never been a fan of.
Yeah, the Go-Roader GT had potential that wasn't exploited, but I still like it despite the limits on sound effects.

Oh, I have no doubt that the Samurai Ha-Oh has amazing presence, and I would like to see the DX version some day (even if I don't own it). But as I stated in the video, that's just not enough to compensate for the amazing amount of parts-swapping that's involved.
The Mogyudai-Oh was just too blocky for my taste even though it had the rotating head cannon for the final combo, AND it broke the mecha trend AGAIN with the cart being towed behind it which becomes part of the robo rather than an accessory to the animal. (Those are the same reasons I didn't get the MaxOhJa from "AbaRanger".)
BTW, why would a mecha stand ON a cart instead of IN it...???
The DaiKai-Oh was just too outlandish for my tastes, even though the rotating face(s) gimmick was kinda interesting. There is just too much [kibble] sticking out of whatever mode it's in for me to tolerate.
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CollectionDX Staff

Bandai of America made completely different toys for their Power Rangers Samurai line than the ones from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, They're intentionally made to be cheaper due to the recession in 2008. If you really want the Japanese versions, you'll have to buy the Kabuto Origami, Kajiki Origami, and Tora Origami from ebay, since these were only available in 2009. They will be very pricy, however.